The City and Borough of Juneau Assembly is going to keep changing.
After three new members and a new mayor were elected during this year’s municipal election on Oct. 2, another member is on his way out after winning a statewide seat during the Nov. 6 general election. Jesse Kiehl, currently in his third and final term on the Assembly, was elected as the new state senator for Senate District Q on Nov. 6.
As a result, Kiehl will resign his seat on the Assembly to start his new gig in the Alaska Legislature. The Assembly is going to appoint someone to finish out Kiehl’s term, which ends next fall. His seat will then be up for election in the October municipal election.
Kiehl is on the Assembly as a representative for District 1 (downtown Juneau and Douglas), so his replacement must be a resident of District 1 who has lived there for at least a year.
Assembly member Rob Edwardson, the chair of the Assembly Human Resources Committee, spoke at Monday’s Committee of the Whole meeting and laid out the next steps to selecting Kiehl’s replacement.
The CBJ will start advertising soon to let people know the position is open. Applications will be open from Nov. 30 to Jan. 2, Edwardson said. The Assembly Human Resources Committee of the Whole (which includes all current Assembly members and Mayor Beth Weldon) will then interview the applicants, and Edwardson said the tentative time for that is 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 10. That time could change depending on Assembly members’ schedules.
The interviews are open to the public, Edwardson said via text message Tuesday. After the interviews, the HR Committee of the Whole will meet in executive session (away from the public) to figure out who they want to recommend, Edwardson said. There will then be a special Assembly meeting (open to the public) where the Assembly members will vote to either reject or appoint the recommended candidate.
Kiehl’s replacement will be the third new member of the Assembly to have a term expire next fall. Areawide Assembly member Carole Triem and District 2 Assembly member Wade Bryson earned one-year terms in the October election, as they were also running for seats left vacant by candidates who resigned to pursue other opportunities.
Once Kiehl’s seat is filled, that will mean that there are four brand-new members of the nine-person Assembly in a span of just a few months. That’s in addition to Weldon moving from Assembly member to mayor after the October election.
• Contact reporter Alex McCarthy at 523-2271 or amccarthy@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @akmccarthy.
